Hi, Gang,

At 12:00 96/02/02 -0500, Susanna wrote:
>Wouldn't it be nice if mothers weren't so overmedicated and if they
>were never seperated from their babies and could breastfeed as much
>as the baby wanted to right from the birth?

It does happen!  I was talking with a dermatologist friend about in-hospital
birthing horror stories, and she told me of her two births in a local (20 mi. NE
of Phila, PA) hospital in 1991 and last spring.  For both births, she was
encouraged to walk around during labor, and to deliver in the position she
liked.  She did not have an episiotomy or any anesthetic, and the baby was
brought to breast as soon as the cord was cut.  After nursing, the baby was
taken briefly to be cleaned up and APGAR scored (NOT suctioned!), then
went to her room with her.  The babies stayed with her until she went home,
had no interventions whatsoever, and were not given anything except from
her breast.  The only intervention she had occurred with the second birth.
She had gone to the hospital a few times with labor that discontinued, the
baby was ten days late already, and her OB was afraid that when she
did go, it would be too rapidly for her to get back to the hospital.  She was
offered pitocin and she accepted.  She says it made her delivery more
difficult than her first had been, but under the circumstances it was her best
choice.

An LC had met with her before the birth, saw her in the room the day after, and
visited her at home the next day.  She thinks the service was wonderful!

Naturally, she's a strong advocate of hospital births.  Had there been an
emergency, the medical staff was right there; she wouldn't have had to wait
15 or 20 minutes for 911 to send help.

I expect from what I've read and heard that this hospital is exceptional.  What
can we do to help make it the norm?

Jonathan